Art Inspired by The French Revolution : Western Civilization II Guides Art Inspired by The French Revolution December 4, 2009 | | 4 Comments There are hundreds of paintings, sketches, and comics influenced by the French Revolution and especially Napoleon Bonaparte. Many of the paintings were painted by one artist, in particular. Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was a neoclassical artist who was born in Paris, France. He was an active supporter of the revolution and supported his friend, Robespierre, on his regime. Napoleon even asked him to paint a portrait of him and David was so captivated by his personality that he was unable to finish the portrait. However, David painted many paintings of him throughout his career. Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernard Pass, 1800 David’s painting, Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernard Pass, displays Napoleon gallantly riding into battle. Golden colors were used on Napoleon’s cape, pants, and hat. These colors indicate Napoleon’s godliness. The white horse may also symbolize godliness or purity, but there are four other versions of this painting that have darker colored horses as well as a more ominous background.

Although, the colors vary, Napoleon’s calm but determined expression in is the same. The wild horse is seen as a symbol of danger or an enemy force and the fact that Napoleon is taking it by the reins depicts him as a great political and militaristic leader. David included the names of Hannibal and Charlemagne to further prove his accomplishments as a great leader. David was trying to portray Napoleon as a great authority figure. He was campaigning for him through his paintings by displaying his attributes. David’s painting, Napoleon in His Study, has many symbols to further portray a man of greatness. His military uniform and sword show authority. He is also portrayed as being very calm by his facial expression and his hand inside of his vest, which was something 18th century men often did to show they calm, relaxed and comfortable before the invention of pockets. There Napoleon in His Study, 1812 are also many ancient Egyptian and Greek symbols such as the winged head of mercury on the wall and the lion table leg. The winged head of mercury is a Greek symbol of wealth and the lion is an Egyptian symbol of physical and majestically power of a king.

The burnt down candles and the bee chair fabric show that Napoleon is a “busy bee” and diligently working to expand the French empire and promote allies. The book that is at the foot of Napoleon, is copy of Plutarch’s Lives, which is a classical book containing biographies of powerful generals that included Caesar and Hannibal. Napoleon's Coronation, 1807 Napoleon’s Coronation is a very famous painting that illustrates the historical event that David was permitted to attend. However, many of the events depicted are not what truly appeared on that day. In the painting, Napoleon is crowning his first wife, Josephine. This is to make Napoleon appear generous. Also, Pope Pius VII was pictured as gesturing a blessing with his hand. In reality, he sat on the throne with his hands in his lap, looking bored. David also lowered the throne so that Napoleon would appear taller. David also featured Napoleon’s mother even though she intentionally missed the coronation. The following youtube video is a scene from the movie, Napoleon Bonaparte, which does a good job of showing his coronation and his interaction with David regarding the painting: Napoleon\’s Crowning .

The Tennis Court Oath, 1791 The Tennis Court Oath or Le Serment du Jeu de Paume was another painting inspired by a historical event. The Tennis Court Oath was a major turning point of the French Revolution. It was a pledge signed by members of the Third Estate and the some members of the First Estate to never separate until a constitution was written. David captured this exciting moment by showing the people raising their arms and hats in praise of the oath. The golden color-scheme portrays the happiness experienced and the blowing of the draperies signifies the winds of change. David attacked the ‘political-religious system on which absolute monarchy was founded’ by painting a bolt of lighting striking the royal chapel. David also included clergyman, Dom Gerle, to show tolerance of the three estates, but this was not the case in reality. In addition, a man in the right lower corner is pictured with his arms clutching his chest and appears to not have taken the oath. This man may be Joseph Martin D’auch, who was a political leader and member of the Third Estate.

The Death of Marat, 1793 Jean Paul Marat was editor-in-chief of the newspaper, L’Ami du Peuple or The Friend of the People. He was also one of the most radical revolutionary leaders of the 18th century. Marat was the deputy Jacobin of the convention, which David was a member. David actually visited with Marat the day before he was stabbed in his bathtub by Royalist, Charlotte Corday. David’s paining, The Death of Marat, shows the image of Marat in his bathtub covered by a blanket. The desk and pen are there to show the scene that David may have seen when he visited because Marat often spent many hours in his bathtub because it gave him relief from a debilitating skin disease. The knife and Corday’s petition signify the treachery of Corday. Marat’s drooping eyelids and tilted head is often compared to the image of Jesus Christ on the cross. These are just a few of the famous paintings inspired by the French Revolution and only one author of many.

Other famous art includes the sketch, Women’s March on Versailles, the painting, The Storming of the Bastille, the cartoon The Third Estate Awakens, the painting, Liberty Leading the People, and the painting, Reading of the Bulletin of the Grand Army. These are pictured below and it’s easy to see recurring themes of devastation, the desire for freedom, and triumph. The Death of Marat - Jacques-Louis David The Death of Marat Click on the picture to see an enlarged version. Oil on Canvas, 65" x 50 3/8" 1793 Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts at Brussels From the outset, David was in active sympathy with the Revolution, and =his majestic historical paintings (especially the Oath of the Horatii, Death of Socrates, and Brutus's Sons) were universally hailed as artistic demands for political action. He orchestrated the great festival of the people, 14 July 1790, and designed uniforms, banners, triumphal arches, and inspirational props for the Jacobin club's propaganda. He was elected a Deputy from the city of Paris, and voted for the execution of Louis XVI.

He was active in numerous agencies of the reign of terror, and historians have identified more than 300 victims for whom David signed execution orders. He was president of the Jacobin club on the day when his good friend and fellow Jacobin, Jean-Paul Marat, was killed. Marat, friend of Robespierre, Jacobin deputy to the Convention, and editor-in-chief of L'Ami du Peuple, was a fiery orator; he was also a violent man, quick to take offense. Some saw him as an intransigent patriot; for others he was merely a hateful demagogue On July 13, 1793, a young Royalist from Caen, Charlotte Corday, managed, by a clever subterfuge, to gain entry into his apartment. When Marat agreed to receive her, she stabbed him in his bathtub, where he was accustomed to sit hour after hour treating the disfiguring skin disease from which he suffered.

David, Marat's colleague in the Convention, had visited him only the day before the murder, and he recalled the setting of the room vividlly, the tub, the sheet, the green rug, the wooden packing case, and above all, the pen of the journalist. He saw in Marat a model of antique "virtue." The day after the murder, David was invited by the Convention to make arrangements for the funeral ceremony, and to paint Marat's portrait. He accepted with enthusiasm, but the decomposed state of the body made a true-to-life representation of the victim impossible. This circumstance, coupled with David's own emotional state, resulted in the creation of this idealized image. Marat is dying: his eyelids droop, his head weighs heavily on his shoulder, his right arm slides to the ground. His body, as painted by David, is that of a healthy man, still young. The scene inevitably calls to mind a rendering of the "Descent from the Cross." The face is marked by suffering, but is also gentle and suffused by a growing peacefulness as the pangs of death loosen their grip.

David has surrounded Marat with a number of details borrowed from his subject's world, including the knife and Charlotte Corday's petition, attempting to suggest through these objects both the victim's simplicity and grandeur, and the perfidy of the assassin. The petition ("My great unhappiness gives me a right to your kindness"), the assignat Marat was preparing for some poor unfortunate ("you will give this assignat to that mother of five children whose husband died in the defense of his country"), the makeshift writing-table and the mended sheet are the means by which David discreetly bears witness to his admiration and indignation. The face, the body, and the objects are suffused with a clear light, which is softer as it falls on the victim's features and harsher as it illuminates the assassin's petition. David leaves the rest of his model in shadow. In this sober and subtle interplay of elements can be seen, in perfect harmony with the drawing, the blend of compassion and outrage David felt at the sight of the victim. The painting was presented to the Coinvention on 15 November 1793.

It immediately the object of extravagant praise; one critic claimed "the face expresses a supreme kindness and an exemplary revolutionary spirit carried to the point of sacrifice." After Robespierre's fall, the painting was returned to David and was rescued from obscurity only after his death. Misunderstood by the Romantics, who saw in it only a cold classicism, it was restored to a place of honor by Baudelaire, who wrote in 1846: "The drama is here, vivid in its pitiful horror. This painting is David's masterpiece and one of the great curiosities of modern art because, by a strange feat, it has nothing trivial or vile. What is most surprising in this very unusual visual poem is that it was painted very quickly. When one thinks of the beauty of the lines, this quickness is bewildering. This is food for the strong, the triumph of spiritualism. This painting is as cruel as nature but it has the frgrance of ideals. Where is the ugliness that hallowed Death erased so quickly with the tip of his wing? Now Marat can challenge Apollo. He has been kissed by the loving lips of Death and he rests in the peace of his metamorphosis.

This work contains something both poignant and tender; a soul is flying in the cold air of this room, on these cold walls, aropund this cold funerary tub." David's position was unchallenged as the painter of the Revolution, and he sought in his three paintings of `martyrs of the Revolution', to apply to these modern men the same universal tragedy to be found in his beloved antiquity. Ultimately, only the Death of Marat survived. The Death of Lepeletier (of 1793) was destroyed in the Thermidorian reaction, and The Death of Bara remained unfinished. David himself was arrested during the Thermidorian reaction, but was not among the hundreds who were condemned to death. He was, however, jailed for more than a year, during which time he painted his second self-portrait. Portrait art has never been more pointless | Art and design | The Guardian Portrait art has never been more pointless Michael Archer There are more images of individuals around now than in any other point in history, yet portraiture has nothing to do with contemporary art Beyond the portrait to the poetic ... A painting of John Donne at the National Portrait Gallery.

Photograph: PR There are more images of individuals around now than in any other point in history, yet portraiture has nothing to do with contemporary art Monday 24 August 2009 08.52 EDT First published on Monday 24 August 2009 08.52 EDT Share on Messenger Close Why does mention of portraiture make me snort with derision? For the sitter, to have one's portrait painted is to indulge in a preposterous bit of self-aggrandisement, while to be a jobbing portrait painter is to exercise the lucrative employment of one's skills in a manner that has nothing to do with contemporary art. To champion portrait painting is to hark back to a 19th-century view of what matters in art, just as to visit the National Portrait Gallery is to enter an archive of social history rather than an art gallery. But isn't there something perverse about this view? I know Jean-Paul Sartre told us that hell is other people, but on the whole we tend not to be so misanthropic. We like people a lot, and whether or not we have met them personally, we gain particular satisfaction from knowing what they look like.

Among the genres of art we find outlined in traditional academic theory, landscape appears to be the one with the largest and most immediate contemporary purchase on our imagination. While Joshua Reynolds might have been thinking only of painting when he discussed 'landskips' in his Discourses on Art , the category now encompasses a far wider range of activities, from Richard Long's walks to the wheat crop recently grown and harvested on a disused railway siding in Dalston, East London, by the Hungarian-American artist Agnes Denes. Alongside landscape, that other minor category, portraiture, seems to be much less secure in its status. The act of commissioning a portrait is something few of us will do – it being restricted to those with more money than is good for them. There are more photographic images of individuals around than ever before – perhaps because of that, and the ease with which still more can be generated, the idea of producing a composed portrait strikes me as increasingly pointless. Even when we do encounter such a thing, we don't always assume that what we're looking at is a portrait.

Why is it, for example, that when walking round the current Elizabeth Peyton exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery – an exhibition consisting largely of paintings of people – it doesn't seem right to classify it as a show of portraiture? The people Peyton paints are famous, and their faces can be seen everywhere in countless photographs. So, one of the main functions of the portrait – producing a likeness – is rendered irrelevant because we really don't need Peyton to show us what Liam Gallagher looks like . If her work is interesting it's because it goes beyond this, allowing us to see Gallagher not only as an individual, but as signifying pervasive features of our cultural environment, a screen upon which we can project our own desires and fears. Which is to say, it is not a portrait at all, but what Reynolds would have called a history painting: the most important kind of art there is. Reynolds's preferred term was, in fact, poetical painting. That is, painting that generalises a specific person in an imaginative and instructive way. When Charlotte Corday went to stab the French revolutionary Marat, he was sitting in his bath because that was the only way he could get relief for the chronic skin condition from which he suffered.

He was definitely not the smooth-skinned, muscle-bound, Michelangelo-esque demi-god depicted by Jacques-Louis David in his famous painting of the murdered man. Likewise, when Gerhard Richter paints his aunt Marianne from an old family snapshot – a painting shown in the exhibition of his portraits at the National Portrait Gallery earlier this year – what makes it overwhelmingly powerful is the knowledge that some time after the photo was taken she was placed in a mental home and subsequently murdered by the Nazis as part of their euthanasia programme to improve the nation's health. The figure in history is what matters. As with landscape, portraiture becomes pertinent when it breaks out of its straightjacket and offers something more than a tastefully composed and skilfully executed representation of someone. This is not to say that painting can't matter in either landscape or portraiture, it's just that it can no longer be a necessary and sufficient condition. Witness the contrasting tales of two men in Trafalgar Square. Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, has expressed regret at the spectacle of Antony Gormley's One and Other project outside his hallowed doors.

Sandy Nairne, director of the adjacent National Portrait Gallery, has himself stood on the fourth plinth . There is a live feed from the plinth relayed to a screen in the portrait gallery's foyer in recognition of the fact that, along with such things as tagged photos on Facebook, this parade of randomly selected humanity is as much as anything else the contemporary face of portraiture. Robert Wilson's macabre video portraits of Lady Gaga | Wallpaper* Robert Wilson's macabre video portraits of Lady Gaga Robert Wilson's macabre video portraits of Lady Gaga Art / 2 Dec 2013 / By Amy Serafin Whatsapp Left: A still from Robert Wilson 'making of' film of Lady Gaga's performance-art piece 'Flying', on show at Paris' Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Right: A detail shot, showing Gaga's painful-looking initiation into the art of Japanese rope bondage Inspired by an upcoming stint as guest curator at the Louvre, Wilson chose themes from the museum's collection, all dealing with death, for his collaboration with Gaga.

The larger-format video of the singer (pictured centre at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac), references Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' 'Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière', the portrait of a 15-year-old girl who passed away soon after the completion Watch the video portrait 'Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière d'après Jean-Ausgust-Dominique Ingres' (2013) to see Gaga capture the maiden's dignified beauty. As with all of Wilson's portraits, movements are extremely subtle. Gaga is almost completely still... until she shuts her eyes just before a minute in. Watch Carefully. Copyright RW Work Ltd. Courtesy of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Paris-Salzburg Wilson also honed in on Andrea Solario's 16th-century 'Head of Saint John the Baptist on a Charger'. He filmed 11 looped videos of the singer's bearded face and superimposed them over the painted head of the martyr.

Pictured is 'Variations d'après la Tête de saint Jean-Baptiste de Solario 1 (D)', 2013 'She would look at the image and after a while she would look at her face in a mirror and something happened, and I would shoot her,' says Wilson. Pictured is 'Variations d'après la Tête de saint Jean-Baptiste de Solario 2 (K)', 2013 Each portrait is unique - thanks to the size of the slash at her throat, her lips being parted or closed, her eyelids fluttering or her expression changing.

Pictured is 'Variations d'après la Tête de saint Jean-Baptiste de Solario 3 (F)', 2013 The macabre sequence continues in 'Variations d'après la Tête de saint Jean-Baptiste de Solario 8 (E)', 2013 A final portrait, 'La Mort de Marat', 2013, takes on 'The Death of Marat', a painting by Jacques-Louis David of the murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat lying dead in his bath The artist and former Wallpaper* guest editor at work editing his film sequences of Lady Gaga Lady Gaga is hanging upside down naked while a rope cuts into her skin, bending her left leg, pinning her arms behind her back and deforming her breasts. This video, by the experimental artist/director - and former Wallpaper* guest editor - Robert Wilson, shows the pop star's painful-looking initiation into the art of Japanese rope bondage. And it serves as the 'making of' for a performance-art video called Flying.

The video, along with Wilson's new video portraits of Gaga, is currently on show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris, run by Wallpaper* Design Awards 2014 judge Thaddaeus Ropac. The collaboration began after Wilson received a phone call from the singer, saying she'd like to discuss projects they might work on together. He subsequently designed the set for her 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance . And he suggested that she pose for his series of video portraits, also featuring celebrities like Brad Pitt and Winona Ryder . Knowing he had an upcoming stint as guest curator at the Louvre , Wilson chose themes from the museum's collection, all dealing with death. 'She's sort of serious,' he explained, 'not your ordinary pop star.' They shot the videos in a London studio over three days, Gaga standing for 14 or 15 hours at a time (when she wasn't trussed like a chicken), blowing away the director with her stamina and emotional intelligence. One subject he selected was Andrea Solario's 16th-century 'Head of Saint John the Baptist on a Charger' .

He filmed 11 views of the singer's bearded face and superimposed them over the painted head of the martyr. 'She would look at the image and after a while she would look at her face in a mirror and something happened, and I would shoot her,' he said. Each portrait is unique - thanks to the size of the slash at her throat, her lips being parted or closed, her eyelids fluttering or her expression changing. A larger-format video references Ingres' 'Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière' , the portrait of a 15-year-old girl who passed away soon after the completion. Gaga managed to capture both the maiden's dignified beauty and the knowledge that she was about to die. 'There's a nobility to her,' Wilson said of the Born This Way singer, 'she's a real princess.' 1000+ images about Art - "The Death of Marat" - Parodies, Remakes, Changes, Copies, Inclusions... on Pinterest | In italia, Jackson pollock and Twilight sparkle Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Art - "The Death of Marat" - Parodies, Remakes, Changes, Copies, Inclusions...

The Death of Marat is a painting by Jacques-Louis David of the murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat. David was the leading French painter, as well as a Montagnard and a member of the revolutionary Committee of General Security. The painting shows the radical journalist lying dead in his bath on 13 July 1793 after his murder by Charlotte Corday. Painted in the months after Marat's murder, it has been described by T. J. Clark as the first modernist painting. 202 Pins389.08k Followers Essay: French Revolution – Death of Marat (painting analysis, representations of the past) Contact us Essay: French Revolution – Death of Marat (painting analysis, representations of the past) The Death of Marat , is an idealistic portrait painted by Jacques-Louis David, depicting the assassination of one of the leaders of the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat. Marat was a prominent member of a group of people called the Jacobins, and founder of a controversial newspaper publication, ‘L’Ami du Peuple’ (“the Friend of the People’). Through the title of his paper, he became widely acknowledged as just that.

Marat used his “the Friend of the People” publication frequently to call for popular violence against politicians. Marat was a part of a group of people called the Sans Culottes. The Sans Culottes supported Marat, and Marat had an influence over them. The main target of his calls were largely a group of people called the Girondins. The Jacobins blamed the Girondins for the defeats on the battlefield and the rising prices of food. On the second of June the Sans-Culottes, supporters of the Jacobins, forced their way into the Convention and expelled the leading Girondins . Many of the expelled Girondins fled Paris, in fear of facing the recently invented guillotine. Many fled to their provinces. In doing so they triggered off revolts in the provinces which supported the Girondins. By the summer of 1793, sixty out of eighty-three departments had joined the rebellion against the government . Faced with such immense problems, on April the 6th, the Convention set up an emergency group called the Committee of Public Safety. This was quite a contradiction of terms, as on September the 17th “The Law of Suspects” came into effect.

“ The Law of Suspects” started a period referred to as the “Reign of Terror”. During this period groups of citizens in every town were required to write up lists of people suspected of opposing the government. Citizens of whatever sex, age, or condition were ruthlessly executed purely for being suspected of opposing the government; “public safety” was in fact at an all time low. Marat was vocal in support of the executions, and this was what ultimately led to his demise. On July 13th 1793 Charlotte Corday, a woman with Girondin sympathies gained entry to Marat’s apartment and murdered him. Subsequently Jacques-Louis David was “commissioned by the convention ” to paint a portrait of Marat. The function of David’s painting was to ensure that the momentum of the revolution kept moving forward. If Marat was to be a symbol for maintaining the momentum of the revolution then David needed to portray him in the most appealing possible way, as “friend of the People”; a martyr. Obviously then, David could not portray Marat as old and ill. David’s aim was to indeed ‘construct images of the secular saint’ .

By depicting Marat in such a martyr like fashion David ensured that Marat’s political ideologies would live on. With David’s painting displaying such sympathies towards Marat he helped the Sans Culottes strengthen support which in turn ensured Marat’s and the Sans Cullotes ideals would therefore continue the momentum of the revolution moving forward. The assassination of Marat sent shockwaves through Paris. The fact that a “Girondin” had infiltrated Paris, and killed a leading revolutionary figure in his own home scared many leaders (in particular Robspierre) who now feared the same could easily happen to them. They needed to ensure Marat’s death would raise sympathies with their parties and quash any future counter-revolutionary assassinations. David had previously shown an aptitude for painting historical events. One of his most famous is that of “The Oath the Horatii” . In this painting David depicts precisely what the French Revolution came to represent. The painting depicts three brothers declaring that they would fight to their death as champions of their city against that of a rival city, for the common good of the people . The subject of The Oath of the Horatii is dedication and sacrifice . This same theme was present in David’s portrayal of Marat.

David shows a Marat who sacrificed his life for the people of his country. In his hand Marat holds a letter. In the letter Corday pleads for assistance. This is an historical inaccuracy by David, showing the problems of representing the past, as this particular letter was never actually shown to Marat. It was only to be used by Corday to gain access to Marat if her first attempt to see him should fail . It is the distortion and manipulation of the facts such these that artists used to further a particular point of view or cause. Lying beside Marat there also lies an assignat upon a wooden crate; the assignat reads “You will give this assignat to that mother of five children whose husband died defending the fatherland ”This document “near Marat’s hand are the unanswerable documents of his saintliness . This document furthers David’s attempts to portray Marat as a hero who was genuinely concerned with the plight of the people of France. In Marat’s right hand is the pen with which he had been writing, and draped over part of the bathtub is a cloth, which serves as a desk.

By attempting to paint Marat as a “friend of the people”, and Corday as someone who falsely appealed to his generosity at the very moment he was responding to a citizens needs , David clearly displays bias. This however contrasts to other representations of the event, as it was said at the trial of Corday that her decision to stab Marat depended upon the response of Marat upon hearing of the opposition . Marat’s reaction to hearing of the opposition was “Good, in a few days I will have them all guillotined” The contrast is of him being shown as “friend of the people” on one hand, yet on the other, he was a vengeful man who had great power and could use it. Advertisement: Hire a writer for your project > Further inaccuracies by David are evident. The appalling skin disease is not apparent. Instead we are faced with an image of a young healthy man. The old wooden crate, and the white sheet which covers his head complete with a patch, they are all aimed at drawing attention to the poverty and inglorious surroundings in which Marat lived. Furthermore the painting’s background is dull; the walls are undecorated and scant of any colour.

In reality the walls of Marat’s “were decorated with elegant wallpaper and decorations to beautify the interior” “David was asked by the Convention to paint Marats portrait, so it could be said that The Death of Marat was commissioned work” . David’s personal perspective is incorporated into the painting. The fact that his painting drew large crowds suggests that his interpretation would have had wide ranging influence ,gaining support for the Jacobins and persuaded the way Parisian’s perceived Marat, despite the paintings inaccuracies. His images showed the power of art to electrify even the most common citizen. David could have indeed chosen to paint a glorious portrait of Marat, instead we see Marat in a bathtub, surrounded by poverty, inglorious and defenceless, again David’s bias is prevalent. This shows the problems historians face when dealing with history as events are often tainted by inaccuracies such as the assignat , and therefor representations cannot be taken on face value alone. David’s bias in painting this picture stems from his friendship with Marat and a mixture of admiration, and trying to depict Marat as a symbol of the revolution.

David’s advantage in attempting to do this was that his representation of Marat was easily absorbed and widely viewed by the public, effortlessly influencing public opinion and continuing the momentum of the revolution moving forward.. Marat is slumped in the bathtub, hand outstretched, lying motionless, in a lifeless picture of tranquillity and peace. Marats is portrayed in a similar pose to sculptor Michelangelo’s masterpiece Pieta , which depicts Christ, arm outstretched as David depicted Marat. The significance is the inference that Marat sacrificed himself for the good of the people , just as Christ is said to have done. Other religious elements are also prominent, the halo like turban around Marats head, and the heavenly light shining upon Marats angelic face. It was Marats aim to “construct images of a secular saint” The portrayal of Marat in this way contrasts with other accounts of Marat. Marat up until the moments before his death was a violent man who totally supported the executions of all those who opposed the government. Marat was once known to have said, “In order to ensure public tranquillity 200,000 heads must be cut off” .

Joseph Roques also depicts Marat in the Pieta like pose. It alerts us to how representations of the past often substitute reality for a cause, in this case the revolution. The Jacobins set forth to prosper from Marat’s high status. Various changes made throughout France reflected this and promoted the Jacobin parties cause. “Place names were altered so that Montmartre became Mont-Marat; rue des Cordeliers, the rue Marat, and over thirty communes throughout the Republic incorporated the martyr in their new name” . Marat dead was perhaps more useful to the Jacobins than the unpredictable, choleric live politician . When analysing representations from the past we must recognise motivating factors behind representations. In a time when violence was so prevalent “actuality” was replaced by inaccurate images resulting in historical misrepresentations. This was partly due to the fear people experienced , partly due to sympathies people held. David supported the Jacobins and so this representation was biased, giving only the Jacobins perspective, not at all representing the views of Corday or the Girondins who particularly hated Marat. All reflections in history are biased documents.

This is because the various problems experienced throughout history such as differing political viewpoints and loyalties affect the reliability and accuracy of historical representations. These differences affect peoples reflections, and afterthoughts of an event or experience , meaning what one person perceives and interprets in a certain way can be totally different to another individuals point of view . Subsequently we must question representations of the past , such as Davids “The Death of Marat” and the validity of opposing views. Great Works: The Death of Marat, 1907 (150x200cm) Edvard Munch | The Independent Great Works: The Death of Marat, 1907 (150x200cm) Edvard Munch Munch Museet, Oslo Thursday 31 March 2011 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Culture The paintings of Edvard Munch often confine the onlooker within an unnervingly straitened psychological space. You are present, watching, but it also feels a little like eavesdropping – and a little like entrapment, too. This is especially so of Munch's self-portraits.

Munch, like Rembrandt, was an obsessive, life-long self-portraitist, but the way in which these two artists approached the task could not have been more different. The essence of Rembrandt does not change from portrait to portrait – his sense of self was relatively stable. What changes is the costuming. Rembrandt is consistently faithful to the abundant world, which exists outside him with all its gorgeous, fleshy tactility. With Munch, there is a terrible blurring, if not a smearing, between inner and outer worlds. He is forever taking his own temperature. In a relatively early one, the Self-Portrait with a Burning Cigarette of 1895, he shows himself, though eerily lit, to be a debonair, raffish smoker, almost clubbable. Never again. Generally speaking, when Munch paints himself, he does so in order to prove that he exists, that he is still fully embodied. His portraits are nervy, febrile, tense in the extreme. He changes, and changes again.

He seems to be present at a haunting – but the person doing the haunting, and the person who is being haunted, happen to be the very same man whose face he confronts in the mirror every wretched, workaday morning. His colours are often feverishly wild and unpredictable. They are faithful to nothing but the vision of Edvard Munch. The more intense the reds, the purples, the yellows, the worse things are going. So what exactly is being enacted in this strange work? It shares its title with a celebrated painting of 1793 by the memorialist of the French Revolution, Jacques-Louis David, which showed the revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat, dying in his bath. When David paints Marat dying, there is no sign of the murderess, Charlotte Corday. In Munch's version, the malignant woman dominates the proceedings. What a wild state of affairs is conjured here! Look how it is painted, all this ferocious whirlpooling of brush strokes. The entire painting is like a kind of emotional maelstrom. Everything comes at us all at once, tipping and lurching, with great vividness and violence.

The use of colour is almost anti-irrational – as if Munch is cocking a snook at the power of human reason to make sense of our terrible, howling complexities. The marks of the brush – horizontal, vertical and many points in between – are ferociously apparent across the painted surface, like some brutal ritual of scarification. And yet throughout this wild evocation, the murderess seems to float towards us, almost ghost-like in her thin, pallid, unnerving, hour-glass-like beauty of sorts. She seems so strangely settled in her otherworldly indifference to her own crime. A huge, ominous shadow – of what? – hulks at her back, as if to suggest that much is not what it seems. The murdered man himself is like so much detritus – crude, puppet-like, and unlovingly flung to one side like a bloody, discarded mannequin. Although Munch is pretending to distance the work from his autobiography by associating it with a key moment in the French Revolution, this is in fact a feint. He is referring to events in his own troubled life. The ghostly Charlotte resembles his sometime lover, Tulla Larsen.

The blood that is smeared across the bed on which the murdered man lies is also rooted in the particular. Munch had shot himself in the finger after a row with Tulla in 1902. A certain amount of blood had flowed. His feverish imagination would never let him forget that act. Now we see it again, fully transfigured, and even sensationalised. As in so many paintings by Munch, he is also addressing the nature of the war between the sexes, the terrible, vampiric unpredictability of the feminine, so seductive, and yet so fear-inducing. ABOUT THE ARTIST The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is a conjuror of disturbing psychological states. He painted his famous work, 'The Scream' (1893), over and over again. He was not so much interested in painting reality, as in trying to discover the heightened visual equivalent of intense human feeling.

More about: The French Revolution in Art The French Revolution in Art Topics: Art History , Colorism , David , Favorite artists , Gericault , Neoclassicism , Rubens , art , revoluion In his comment on my post about Rubens, Zander reminded me of his influence on Delacroix, and I decided I should take him up next. Then I realized that before looking at his work, I should set the scene with the generation that preceeded him. Because the fact is, no matter how interesting the work of any one artist at this period may be, the art scene in France as a whole is much more fascinating. I am leading off with the "Oath of the Horatii" by Jacques-Louis David, the "painter of the revolution". Since the work seems "mainstream" and "old-fashioned" to our eyes, it takes a huge effort of empathy to understand what it meant at the time: it was a bombshell! First we need to realize that the classicism we see in the David was long gone in French art.

By this time it had morphed into a frothy confection called the Rococo, with lighthearted erotic fantasy as its staple; an example is Fragonard's "The Swing", where the main story seems to be a peek under the dress by an ogling courtier. This was the art of the French Court, and was symptomatic of their utter detachment from reality. Comparing the styles, we can get an inkling of how stunning was the simplicity and reality of David's work. The "Oath" was actually commissioned by the King, intended to remind Frenchmen of their duty to the Crown. Subjects from classical history and mythology must always be seen as a comment on the present, chosen for their moral message. We can see this in the "Sabine Women", a later moment in the revolution where David is calling for reconciliation. In the Horatii, David - a revolutionary - created a painting which was read by his countrymen as a call to action for France, against the crown. It was described at the time as having more impact than all the revolutionary tracts put together! The classical story is very telling. It is from early republican Rome, not later Imperial Rome.

The Horatii, three brothers, are chosen as the champions of Rome to fight against the Curatii, champions of Alba, to determine supremacy of one city over the other. The women slumped in grief includes their sister, whose husband is the eldest of the Curatii. The lesson: country over family. It is fascinating to see the evolution of David's style as the revolution takes its course. The "Death of Marat", another revolutionary call to arms, has now shed the clothing of classical reference, and uses the same theatrical lighting to illuminate a real scene. The revolutionary Marat is in his bath (he had an incurable skin disease) murdered by Charlotte Cordeille, as he writes his last testament to the people of France. He willed to them his courage and his resolve. A decade later David produced his "Coronation of Josephine", a massive work of which I am showing only the center portion. David was one of many Frenchmen who saw Napoleon as the legitimate inheritor of the revolution; his origianl sketches show Napoleon crowning himself, but the final version shows the less controversial moment where he crowns the empress.

This is Rubensian in its scale and magnificence, though still neoclassical in its detail. For the figures David not only did portraits for every head, but did full nude studies of every figure. With the success of the revolution, David's Neoclassical style quickly became the establishment standard. It swept not only art but style and fashion. In his portrait of Mme. Recamier, we see the Roman style in dress, in coiffeur and in furniture, displayed almost as a model of correct taste. In other words, France was ripe for the next revolution! Here I am comparing David's "Napoleon crossing the Alps" with a "Mounted Hussar" by Gericault. We can see immediately that Gericault is harking back again to Rubens, in rebellion against the strictures of neo-classicism. He was the first representative of the "colorist" opposition to the French academy, which had enshrined neo-classicism as the only correct style. I will end with a look at Gericault's great masterpiece, "The Raft of the Medusa". Ironically, his approach in this work was more academic than in the "Hussar", with careful studies of the figures.

But the subject is a direct attack on the government. The Medusa was a French naval vessel which foundered in a storm, while carrying hundreds of civilian refugees home. When the ship sank, there was no room in the ship's boats for the refugees, so a raft was built, to be towed to land by the sailors in the boats. During the night, the sailors cut loose the raft, and left the refugees to their fate. When they were eventually saved and returned to tell the story, it was a major scandal for the government. According to Gericault, he is showing NOT the moment when the survivors are saved, but a moment the day before when they spot a ship, which passes without seeing them. It is utterly Romantic (with a capital "R"), dispair, followed by hope, followed by utter anguish. The younger Delacroix describes in his diaries having seen the work on the easel in Gericault's studio, and running blindly through the streets of Paris in a frenzy of excitement. Delacroix, whom I will look at in my next post, was the great French Romantic, and perhaps the finest exemplar of the "Colorist" opposition.

Question: Which artist painted the portrait of French revolutionary Marat being murdered in his bath ?
Answer: David